protecting their patients and directly protecting patients, laying over the top of patients because these ambulance doors immediately gave, blew through the e.r. reporter: when it was over, paul johnson could see the sky. i could look up through that ceiling right there and see blue sky. i could see some of the hospital had to be gone because i knew there was another floor above us. when i saw that i said, this ain t good. this is not good at all. reporter: but johnson was okay and so was mcdaniel and his family. my grandpa has bruises and cuts on his back. my grandma has glass still embedded in her hair, but we re a lot better off than a lot of people. this is bad. oh, my gosh. this is awful. reporter: a lot of people in joplin were suddenly and severely wounded, but the biggest hospital in town was in
joplin, missouri, the biggest hospital for miles around. st. johns is a 230-bed acute care hospital. reporter: jim risko has been an e.r. doctor at st. johns for the last 17 years. this is a very, very sophisticated hospital in a relatively small townme. i was down the road playing horseshoes. reporter: andrew mcdaniel came to the hospital to visit his grandmother on may 27. as he arrived, a sound familiar to every mid westerner. the sirens started going off. i looked and didn t see much other than dark clouds over there. i didn t think anything of it. reporter: but in those dark clouds, a monster tornado was headed right for them. at st. johns it was the moment they trained for that they hoped would never come. we drill well, actually just by virtue of the fact that we re in tornado alley down here, we prepare several times a
developing story in a few minutes from now. president obama is back at the white house of a spending several hours in joplin, missouri. it was exactly a week ago that an f-5 tornado ripped through the city killing people in minutes. 5:41 central time there was a moment of silence marked by the precise instant that tornado hit. our dan traveled with the president to joplin and dan, a tough job for the president to try to lift spirits of a being amongest the people but seeing this disaster first-hand. this is a president who has had to do this quite a bit lately. other natural disasters as well. the president as you know last week was overseas among other things building relationships with european partners. throughout that time, white house aid said the president was getting updates on the situation here in joplin. today the president got to see the devastation up close. before touching down, air force 1 flew over joplin, missouri, giving the president an aerial view of
storm chasers in awe of nature s power. oh, my gosh. this is awful. dude, the trees are debarked. reporter: residents running for every anywhere they could. everybody get down, all on the ground. reporter: in a crowded convenience store, some 20 people hunkering down in a darkened commercial refrigerator. can we go in the cooler? [ screaming ] go! oh, dear heaven. god! reporter: at the same time a security camera in a nearby frozen yogurt shop catches the chaos. workers moving customers to the back and then everything goes flying. the massive tornado mowing down everything in its path. people s lives churned up and spewed out. here s the gas station that we were at. reporter: this is the convenience store now. this would have been where we walked in. reporter: all across the city, thousands and thousands of people in shock, taking the first steps on the long road to recovery. make no mistake, joplin, missouri, will rebuild, but it will never be the
god! reporter: at the same time a security camera in a nearby frozen yogurt shop catches the chaos. workers moving customers to the back and then everything goes flying. the massive tornado mowing down everything in its path. people s lives churned up and spewed out. here s the gas station that we were at. reporter: this is the convenience store now. this would have been where we walked in. reporter: all across the city, thousands and thousands of people in shock, taking the first steps on the long road to recovery. make no mistake, joplin, missou missouri, will rebuild, but it will never be the same. hello and welcome to this one-hour cnn special report on the joplin, missouri, tornado and other deadly storms. a twister s fury: in the path of destruction. i m drew griffin. just hours from now president obama will be on the ground in joplin for his first look at what s left of this devastated city. 142 people have lost their lives. another hundred are missing ye